Viva La Vida
by lilac-kat
Summary: WRITTEN FOR THE WINNER OF CONTEST #3. Olive is growing tired with Odd Squad, and she doesn't know why. But she does know that Odd Todd wants her to join him. Can she resist his persuasion, or is the offer just too tempting? Read to find out! (Story does not contain shipping/OLP)
1. Viva La Vida

**Viva La Vida**  
 _by Coldplay_

I used to rule the world  
Seas would rise when I gave the word  
Now in the morning I sleep alone  
Sweep the streets I used to own  
I used to roll the dice  
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes  
Listen as the crowd would sing  
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"  
One minute I held the key  
Next the walls were closed on me  
And I discovered that my castles stand  
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing  
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing  
Be my mirror, my sword and shield  
My missionaries in a foreign field  
For some reason I can't explain  
Once you're gone there was never  
Never an honest word  
But that was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind  
Blew down the doors to let me in  
Shattered windows and the sound of drums  
People couldn't believe what I'd become  
Revolutionaries wait  
For my head on a silver plate  
Just a puppet on a lonely string  
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing  
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing  
Be my mirror, my sword and shield  
My missionaries in a foreign field  
For some reason I can't explain  
I know Saint Peter won't call my name  
Never an honest word  
But that was when I ruled the world

Woahahahah oh, woahahah oh  
Woahahahah oh, woahahah oh  
Woahahahah

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing  
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing  
Be my mirror, my sword and shield  
My missionaries in a foreign field  
For some reason I can't explain  
I know Saint Peter won't call my name  
Never an honest word  
But that was when I ruled the world

ooooooh ooh oooooh oh ooooooh oh oooooh ooh


	2. Once You're Gone

**A/N Alrighty, so as promised, here's the next Contest-winning fanfic. The idea was submitted to me by Agent43 as his prize for winning Contest #3. This will be a 5-chapter story, not counting the prologue with the song lyrics. Also, just a reminder that the prize story for Contest #2 will be published later, since it's only a one-shot.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own _Odd Squad_. Just the stories I write about it.**

 **SECOND DISCLAIMER: Since not one of my original ideas, this story is not canon with anything else I have written. More of a "what-if" scenario. The story may be written by me, but Agent43 has complete final say in what is published.**

 **Alright, enjoy the story! :)**

* * *

1 - Once You're Gone, There Was Never an Honest Word

 _TO-DO LIST_

1) Finish desk work and filing from yesterday

2) Stop by lab to return gadgets

3) Go swimming (NOT in fuzzy dice pool this time)

4) Shoot hoops in gym

5) Dust both desks

6) Ask Ms. O about new partner

7) Send another e-mail to Todd

 _Wait._ Agent Olive stopped writing. Was that last one really wise? She'd already sent, like, a bazillion emails to him since the pienado incident last summer. At first they were angry, then questioning, even apologetic. But he hadn't responded to a single one.

She sighed. Life was supposed to be good right now, wasn't it? Ever since Todd's dramatic exit, Olive had established herself as one of Odd Squad's top agents. Even working solo, she still knew how to solve any case, even if it took her a little while to do the math. Without him, she had been able to crawl out of her shell and earn the confidence and trust she needed.

So why did she still feel so empty inside?

Olive glanced at the empty desk opposite her longingly. No matter how good she was, it still hurt not to have a partner. Ms. O had told her last spring that there was a new recruit who'd make a good partner for her, but she hadn't heard anything about him since. _Shouldn't he be taking his final exams by now?_ she wondered. _What's been taking so long?_

Olive pursed her lips and shook her head. No point in thinking about something like this at the moment. There was too much to be done today, not even counting the cases she might be called on to solve.

Solo, of course.

* * *

"We've weighed _everything!_ " Olive groaned in exasperation, putting her hands on her hips.

Otto pulled the sack of golf clubs off the see-saw and set it on the pile of objects. As he straightened up, something on the far shelf caught his eye. "Everything...except for that pie."

 _Pie?!_

Olive followed the direction of Otto's gaze and focused on it. _It._ Todd's symbol of oddness and destruction. And it was sitting _right there._ Instinctively she screamed and clutched Otto's arm. What if Todd popped out from behind it _right now?_

"Do it, Olive!" Otto said to her. "Face your fears!"

Olive looked up at him blankly. He still didn't know. She'd never told him. No one had. Not when Mayor Macklemore mentioned it at the park, not when Oscar let it slip at the birthday party. He didn't know who Todd was, what he had been...and what he had become.

Nevertheless, Otto was right. Todd was long gone. Besides, what was the point in being afraid of a pie that was probably actually a briefcase? It's not like it was going to contaminate her or anything. Clenching her fists, Olive moved away from her partner and inched toward it. "You can do it," she whispered to herself as she reached out her hands. _It's not Odd Todd,_ she thought to herself as she took hold of the pie tin and lifted it up. "You—" _It's_ "—can—" _not_ "—do—" _Odd_ "—it." _Todd_. Slowly, she made her way back to Otto. "You can do it." _It's not Odd Todd_. Taking a deep breath, she lowered T— the _pie_ onto the see-saw.

"It's the same weight!" Otto exclaimed.

Olive grinned, quickly whipped out her gadget, and fired. Instantly _it_ was gone, replaced by Ms. O's briefcase. She let out the breath she'd been holding in a sigh of relief.

Yet...for the rest of the day, something bothered her. Not the lost chance at a day off from angering Ms. O, although Otto certainly got upset about _that_. No, it was the memory of the pie in her hands for those oh-so-brief ten seconds. And finally, that evening as she rode the tubes home from work, Olive put a finger on what it was. And the realization was unsettling.

It was mere instinct that had made her scream at the sight of pie. She hadn't really been scared of it at all. In fact…

...she'd kind of _liked_ it.

* * *

"And this year's final O Games contestant is...Agent—" she blinked. _No. No, that's impossible. It can't be him, it just can't._ "—43!"

Olive gasped with everyone else. Had she really read that number right? But she had, and sure enough, there he was. Running through the door, panting and cackling wickedly, an evil glint in his eye and a triumphant smirk on his face. Her old partner.

"But that's Todd!" Otto said.

"It's _Odd_ Todd now," he corrected, not for the first time. He looked around at the other agents and waved jovially. "Hello, everyone!" He nodded at Olive. "Howdy, partner!"

Olive mustered up a glare. "I'm not your partner anymore," she spat, remember what Otto had told her on the day Todd returned. But even as the words came out of her mouth, there was a sour taste to them. Something wasn't right with that. Wasn't it once your partner, always your partner?

This couldn't be good. Olive was getting confused. She glanced at Otto's determined face to clear her head again.

Todd went on to have Oscar prove that he was indeed allowed to compete in the O Games. "So I'm gonna play," he said in a sinister tone, "and I'm gonna win. And when I become Ms. O for a day, I'm gonna shut down Odd Squad... _forever!_ " He cackled loudly as everyone gasped again.

"He can't do that!" Olive whispered to Otto in disbelief. It would be impossible to, with so many chapters scattered all over the world. _Not only that,_ she thought, _but he WOULDN'T do that...would he? After all, Todd never wanted to shut Odd Squad down. He just wanted it to do the opposite of fighting odd. Then again, that's why he created the Todd Squad. Still, I don't think he would—_

 _What am I doing? He's Odd Todd! Why am I defending him?_

Why, indeed. As the O Games began and progressed, Olive, watching from the front row of the North Control Room, felt a conscious need to prove to everyone how much she despised Todd. She led all the other agents in booing him when he got ahead and cheering the other four contestants when they got ahead. She gave Otto as much advice as she could, like taking his time and thinking things through, remembering that Todd had always been known for his impatience with everyone around him. And when Otto won the maze challenge, she shouted and applauded loudest of all. Not to mention led all the agents in laughing mockingly at Todd when he was eliminated.

Then she saw what Otto's plans for being Ms. O for a day involved.

"First things first, I want a pizza," he barked over the phone, setting down his juice box and propping his feet up on the desk. "Then I want a party. _Then,_ I want Soundcheck to come for a concert." Otto paused. "Scratch that, I want Soundcheck to bring _me_ the pizza. And make all the instruments made out of pizza, too."

Olive stood off to the side with Oscar and Ms. O, watching and listening and not really approving. Before she could stop herself, the thought in her head came out through her mouth. "Maybe things would've been less odd if Todd won," she muttered to Ms. O.

To her surprise, both Ms. O and Oscar agreed. "Yeah, really," they replied, nodding.

"Shh! Important business here!" Otto shushed them. But Olive was too busy thinking to notice. The thought in her head from earlier today had come back. _Would_ it be so terrible if Todd returned?

Or...if _she_ went to Todd?

* * *

 _How do I explain this?_ "Todd's my old partner," she told Otto. "This is my fight to fight. I'm going alone."

Olive could feel Otto's eyes on her as she hurried out of the lab and toward the tubes. He wasn't convinced, she could tell. Truth be told, neither was she. Something not very good was waiting for her at the other end, she could feel it. But whether she was walking into a trap or not, she needed a moment to speak with Todd.

And get the Flip-Floppernator back. Of course, that too.

Popping out of the tubes in front of Polly Graph's house, she watched as her old partner ruined the price of lemonade for a customer. "That's enough, Todd!" Olive called out as she strode over to him angrily.

Todd grinned at the sight of her. "Agent Olive," he greeted with an elaborate curtsey.

Olive was a little taken aback. _Why the manners? Shouldn't he hate me?_ But that didn't matter. More important that she hate him—and show it. "Give back the Flip-Floppernator," she demanded, holding out her hand. " _NOW._ "

"I have a better idea," Todd replied, a little too quickly, as if he'd had something planned. "Join...the Todd Squad!"

 _Did he just say what I think he just said?_

"We can make the world more odd—together!" Todd's eyes shone with excitement.

 _Yep, he definitely did._ Mentally, Olive cringed. There he was yet again, going against everything Odd Squad stood for. But one word had stuck out to Olive. " _Together,"_ she thought. _Todd really does want me to join him. Me._ That's _why I had to come alone. If he could get me by myself without Otto or Oscar or Ms. O, he'd have a better chance of convincing me. But, why me…?_ Suddenly she remembered all those emails she'd sent before Otto came along. Had Todd read them after all? Did he really want her to be his partner again, but on the odd side? What would the odd side be like? Was she really willing to leave behind everything she stood for and join him? Was this who she was meant to be?

It only took one second for all of that to flash through her mind. Todd was speaking again. "I'll be Todd," he said, pointing at himself, "and you can be Tolive!"

 _Excuse me?_ Olive thought in disgust. "You can't just add a T to every name, Todd."

"Tpolly," a muffled voice said. Olive watched as Polly made a face. "Nope, you can't," she agreed.

Todd made a "Pssh!" noise and waved a hand dismissively, as if to say, " _Doesn't Odd Squad do that with O names?"_

But the distraction had been enough. Olive snapped back to her normal self. "I'll never join you," she told him defiantly.

It was as if she'd slapped him in the face. "Rargh!" Todd growled at her, fiercely enough that Olive flinched. Strangely enough, he looked more hurt than angered. And was that a hint of remorse in his eyes? "I guess," he said, trying to salvage his evil persona, "we'll have to go with Plan T, then."

What happened next was one of the most humiliating experiences of Olive's life. Not only was she suddenly transformed into a 21-year-old woman (with absolutely _NO_ idea what to do with all these weird newly-developed body parts), but she was also unrecognized, interrogated, stared at, and then _kicked off the squad_ by the very agents and friends she'd come to trust!

She could only take small comfort in the fact that it was temporary. Thankfully Oscar was quick to step up and go fight Todd, and came back less than an hour later with a magnet vest on his shirt and the Flip-Floppernator in his hands. He quickly turned Olive back into her regular 12-year-old self, and she was given her badge back immediately after.

As should be expected, Olive was extremely relieved the moment that awful experience was over. For a couple reasons. Obviously it was a comfort to have her normal body and job back. But in those few seconds when she hugged Oscar in gratitude for his bravery, when she breathed a sigh of reassurance to feel the comfortable weight of her badge back where it belonged, Olive knew that, shamefully, there was another reason she was relieved.

Because in her encounter with Todd, she'd almost forgotten herself. Almost went against her better judgment.

Almost told him yes.

xxx

Far away from the street he'd been terrorizing until Oscar showed up, Odd Todd ambled down a sidewalk, kicking at a small pebble. He was moping.

 _Why couldn't she have just said yes?_


	3. I Can't Explain

**Just to let you know, the following _should_ be SPOILER-FREE.**

 **A/N So some of you might remember that I asked for no one to tell me the plot of the 40th episode, right? Well...that didn't work out. See, I was reading an article/review on the show when before I knew it, I had just read the plot that someone had slipped in there without any warning whatsoever. Let's just say that my room was a wreck within five minutes afterward...  
** **Oh well. It wasn't anyone's fault but mine that I'm now super depressed about the end of the season. Because from what I understand of the plot, it seems to completely go against what Odd Squad stood for, especially as far as the relationship/foil between Olive and Otto goes. But I'll stop ranting now, for those of you readers that don't want to find out either. And hey, it gave me a great idea for the ending of an upcoming fanfic...**

 **Anyhow, back to _this_ story. Thanks to everyone for the lovely reviews, especially for so many on just one chapter! As I've said before, I appreciate both positive feedback and constructive criticism, but please no hate comments. No one likes those and they're embarrassing for ALL parties involved, not just me. If anyone posts something hateful, I will personally send Odd Todd after you. Literally. He is the creator of this story, after all.  
**

 **But enough of that. Enjoy the chapter! Or maybe not... ;)**

* * *

Ephesians 4:26-27: "In your anger do not sin". Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

* * *

2 - For Some Reason I Can't Explain

TO-DO LIST

1) Do not lose your cool

2) Figure out what your problem is

3) Do not lose your cool

4) Maybe talk to Otto and/or Oscar for advice?

5) Do not lose your cool

6) Ask Ms. O about progress made on tracking Todd

7) Do not lose your cool

8) Delete all your emails to Todd

9) DO NOT LOSE YOUR COOL

 _There's something very wrong with me,_ Olive thought in alarm as she scanned over her list. _What on earth is going on? I've never felt this worked up before. Never._

For the past week or so, Olive felt like she was getting impatient with Odd Squad. And not just one or two things, but everything about it. Even Otto. Even her own partner. And it had something to do with Todd, she could feel it. Just yesterday she'd had this overwhelming desire to act—well, _odd._ Like everything that Todd used to do: obnoxiously interrupting meetings, drumming in the shower, eating with his feet, and more. "Our job is to fix odd stuff," she'd had to remind herself out loud, "not make things more odd."

But even now, the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. On a whim, Olive decided to test her theory. Quickly she turned on her computer and got on the internet, then looked up every social media site she could find and searched "#oddsquad". Sure enough, almost everything that came up in the results had to do with a group of teenagers acting totally ridiculous, immature, and—yes, _odd_. What's more, in every image she saw, they all looked like they were having fun.

Fun. Olive suddenly grew angry with herself. Is that why she was impatient with Odd Squad? Because it wasn't fun anymore? _That's ridiculous_ , Olive chastised herself with a snort, looking up to glance at the room around her. Everything about Odd Squad Headquarters practically screamed _FUN._ The climbing wall, the sandbox and slide, the ball room, the many different doors, the game room, the pools, not to mention the gym. Odd Squad was created by _kids_ after all. Aside from work, having fun was kind of the point. And most of the time, even the work was fun.

Wasn't it?

But what about the times she got flattened and turned to stone? Or when she was forced to wear a real Santa Claus beard around on Christmas Day? Or when she was turned into a puppet and got made fun of by other agents? Or when she contracted the skips and the jinx and became a countdown crook? Or all the times she had to deal with that stupid Soundcheck? Or when O'Brian tube-blocked her for the day? Or when she was forced to eat egg-salad pizza?

Or worst of all, when no one believed she was her 21-year-old self and then kicked her off the squad?

Olive sighed and crossed the #2 item off her list. _What's my problem?_ she asked herself rhetorically. _I'm embittered and jaded and tired of Odd Squad. And that needs to stop NOW._

Glancing up from the list on her desk, she saw Otto making his way toward her from the break room with something in his hand. Quickly Olive shut off her computer and hid her list. Maybe now she could take care of item #4.

"Hey, Olive!" Otto greeted her cheerfully. "What's up?"

She was about to reply when she noticed the thing he was holding was a dripping butternut squash soupsicle. Olive nearly gagged. Soupsicles were one of the grossest and messiest foods she'd ever seen. _Trust my partner to pick something like that for his snack_. The disgusted thought ran through her mind before she could stop it. Olive bit her lip. There was no place in her head for thoughts like that, especially not now. "Um, fine! Great, thanks. Hey, uh, listen, I need to talk to you about something important—"

"So do I!" Otto burst in, cutting her off. "There's a number hog loose and she's stealing the number 9 everywhere! Ms. O needs us to go catch her and get all the 9s back. Come on!" Dropping the soupsicle in the trashcan by their desks, Otto grabbed Olive's arm with a slimy soup-covered hand.

This time Olive did gag, but she tried to ignore it. "Otto, please listen to me. Something's not right, I don't—"

"No time, come _on!_ " Otto interrupted again, and he promptly dragged her out of her seat and off toward the tube lobby.

Meanwhile, on Olive's list, the ninth item faded away and disappeared.

* * *

"Olive? Hey, Olive. Hello? Earth to Olive?"

Olive blinked. "Huhwut?"

Otto gave her a look and indicated the tall dark-blonde guilty-looking teenager sitting on the green living room couch behind him. "We just solved the case," he said slowly and deliberately. With his other hand he held up Oscar's number hog finder. "Although it was more like _I_ solved the case, since you weren't, um, paying attention."

"We—you—oh!" Olive looked at the teen girl. "You're the...number hog, then?"

The girl nodded and bit her lip. "Yeah. I'm so sorry! I just really like the number nine. I mean, there's nine letters in my middle name Katherine, I was born in 1998 and its digits add up to a multiple of nine, it's how many lives a cat has and my favorite pet is a cat, and—"

"We get it," Otto stopped her. "See, that's why you're a number hog. You think about nines too much, and you start to use them up when you're looking for them like that."

"Sorry," the girl muttered. "I think I might have OCD. Guess I should get that checked out."

"You don't say." Otto patted her on the shoulder. "But it's alright. The nines should be back where they belong now. Just don't do it again, okay?"

The girl smiled. "Don't worry, I promise!"

"Thank you. We appreciate it." Otto started out the door, then paused and shot a look at Olive.

"Wha—oh!" Olive shook her head and cleared her throat. "Have a good day, miss." And she quickly followed her partner out the front door of the girl's house.

When they were outside and on their way down the sidewalk, Otto grabbed Olive's shoulder and stopped her before they reached the tube entrance. "Hold on, Olive. Um, before we head back to work, why don't you and I go out for an early supper? My treat. Does pizza sound good?"

"Pizza?" Olive was confused.

"Yeah. I mean, I don't know, you just seemed kinda... _off_ today. I thought maybe you'd like to relax for a bit."

Olive thought about it. Pizza did actually sound good...and hadn't she needed to talk to Otto about something? Yes, she did. This would be the perfect opportunity. "No, that's alright. I, uh...left something back at headquarters. My dinner. I packed it today."

Otto narrowed his eyes. "No, you didn't. You never do."

"How do _you_ know I didn't just change my routine for today?" Olive retorted suddenly, irked at Otto's attitude. Not to mention a little confused at why she declined his offer.

"Okay, okay, fine." Otto held up his hands in surrender. "But...you have been acting weird lately. Like you don't want to be around me or Oscar or anyone else, and you haven't been doing your work—"

That did it. "What do you mean, I haven't been doing my work?" she snapped. "I'm on time every day, I get my filing done, I solve cases—"

Otto snorted. "Oh yeah, like that case you solved just now. Oh wait, that's right, you didn't! It was _me_ that solved it!"

"You!" Olive felt herself raising her voice, but she was too angry to care. " _You_ didn't let me finish! Maybe I've also noticed that I'm acting weird lately. Maybe I'm not sure what it is, and maybe I do want to talk about it. Maybe that's what I was TRYING to tell you earlier at our desks. But you wouldn't let me say a word! Admit it, you _never_ let me talk! You're always interrupting me to blab on and on about Soundcheck, or dancing, or pizza, or whatever other gross food you drag in to eat! It's no wonder I can't get my work done—"

"So this is all _my_ fault?" Otto argued back, likewise raising his voice. "What about those times when all you can talk about are sports and Coach Roberts and the Bears basketball team? Or all those times you nag me about this and that and everything I do wrong, just because I'm still kind of new? It's so boring!"

Something told Olive to shift focus away from herself. "Boring? You wanna talk about boring? _This_ is boring!" Olive gestured wildly around her. "This whole thing! It's the same villains, the same problems, over and over again! Number hog? We just had one of those last winter! Honestly, I don't understand how these people keep doing the same odd stuff and making the same odd mistakes and not _learning_ from them! Not to mention, did you _never_ notice that none of the adults can do basic math? Keyword, _basic!_ "

Otto stared at her in shock. "I don't believe it," he ground out. "You know who you sound like right now? You're sounding an awful lot like your old partner."

Olive laughed mirthlessly. "Todd? I thought you made it clear he wasn't my partner anymore. Or maybe you're still jealous that I had another partner before you—"

" _Jealous?!_ " Otto sputtered. "Why would I be jealous of _him?_ He never let you work, he was always torturing you with odd behavior, and he made fun of you by calling you Scribbles—"

"Distracting me from work, odd behavior, and making fun of me," Olive repeated mockingly, ticking the items off her fingers. "Hmm. Yep, sounds like my partner. _Both_ of them! Must be a theme of Ms. O's for me."

"What are you trying to—"

"You know what, go get your stupid pizza! Guess some people just don't care enough about me as an Odd Squad agent if I'm always getting assigned horrible partners. And if _you_ think I'm boring, maybe it'd just be better if I had _never been one!_ " And with that, Olive whirled around and stormed off.

"Olive, wait—!" Otto called out after her, but she had already ducked behind a 'No Parking' sign and disappeared into the tubes. "I don't feel like pizza anymore," he whispered.

The sun was setting. The sky was darkening. Otto stood there for a long time.

* * *

Meanwhile, Olive sat at her desk with her face in her hands. _I blew it. I totally blew it. I said I wasn't going to lose my cool and I did. What's worse, Otto was right and I was wrong, and he knows it._ It didn't help that nothing else on her list had been completed that day.

Her list. Olive slowly raised her head up and stared at her computer. There was still #8. Turning on her computer, she pulled up her email account and clicked on a file that read "Todd". In it were all the emails she had sent to him in the time before she met Otto. Clicking on the 'Select All' button, she held her finger over the delete key. _It would be so easy. Just delete them all and move on. Get through the rest of your list. It's the only way to solve your problem. Come_ on, _Olive, you have to do this!_

Yet Olive hesitated. Something was holding her back. Starting to panic, she quickly forced herself to think of all the happy memories she'd made at Odd Squad. _Let's see, um...well, there's the—the birthday parties, yes, for...for...Otto! And for Ms. O, right. And there's...there's...um...Coach Roberts and his—his Bears team, yes. And the, uh, the puppets—no wait, I hated that...what about the—the-the-the Polly's stand, of course! She sells...lemonade...and hot cocoa...and Otto and I would go there to...to...to...get flattened and turn 21, right. Wait, no… What was I thinking of again? Oh, right, the—the memories...of…_

Whatever she was thinking of was slipping out of her grasp, fast. In her confusion, Olive gazed unseeing at her computer screen.

And suddenly saw the "Compose Mail" button.

Not really thinking about what she had to do, Olive clicked on it. First she typed "Help?" in the subject box. Then she poured out all of her frustrations from today, from making the list this morning to her impatience with everything at Odd Squad to her outburst at Otto. At the end she wrote, "I can't figure this out. I'm so confused and I don't know what to do. You've been through this before. All anger and hatred and past encounters aside, I so badly need help. Can you please tell me what to do?" Finally, her fingers shaking, Olive typed Todd's name in the contact box and clicked 'Send'.

"Now what on earth did I just do," she murmured under her breath.

Olive didn't remember getting up from her desk, or walking to the Odd Squad Warehouse, or prying open a heavily-sealed box at the back. But next thing she knew, she found herself staring at a painting of a pienado. It had been painted decades ago when the Great Pienado Disaster devastated much of the Midwest, but ever since Todd's dramatic attack on Odd Squad, the painting had become associated with her old partner. Olive remembered the day it was moved from the storage room to the warehouse, just before O'Brian had tube-blocked her. She remembered how it made her shudder to look at it. But now, in the dim warehouse light, with all the turmoil inside her, it gave her a strange sense of comfort.

Eventually, Olive made her way back to her desk, just in time to hear a soft _ping_ from her computer. There was a new email waiting in her inbox. Holding her breath, Olive clicked it open and read Todd's reply. It simply said:

" _My offer is still good. You know how to find me. ~T."_


	4. Mirror, Sword, Shield

**A/N Did anyone happen to notice my cameo appearance in the last chapter? If not, I'm the number hog obsessed with 9s. Like,** ** _obsessed_** **obsessed. Just ask my friends. XD**

 **Not much to say, just a reminder that I've started school now and updates may be a little slow in coming. But Odd Todd is kind of forcing me to finish this story, so I won't abandon it. ;) Not that I want to. As I told Todd, I was a little apprehensive about this story idea at first, but it's turning out to be a fun project and exciting journey! Of course, it's even better to have all you readers along for the ride. :D**

 **And finally, as you can see, the title of this chapter is "Be My Mirror, My Sword and Shield". Brownie points to anyone who can find the one sentence in this chapter that (practically) literally describes the title. ;) Let me know your answers in the reviews!**

3 - Be My Mirror, My Sword and Shield

 _SHOPPING/COLLECTION LIST:_

* Drum set

* Jar of pickle juice

* Footheld spoon

* Blue blob (with extra lemon flavor)

* Sandwichinator

* Multiple kinds of pie

 _I can't believe I'm actually doing this,_ Olive thought, shaking her head.

It was the next morning, and Olive was sitting at a park bench by herself (not counting the pigeons cooing and pecking at who-knows-what further down the sidewalk). For the first time in her entire career at Odd Squad, she'd actually skipped work.

After all, how else would she have had the time to collect and bring to the park with her all the things she knew Todd liked?

Olive looked at the spread lying on the sidewalk in front of her. Todd had said she knew how to find him, and he was right—although at that moment it might've been more accurate to say _he_ knew how to find _her_. Hence Olive's grocery list. Most of it wasn't hard to get, though she didn't know how she found the nerve to buy all those pies at the Shmumber Market. She'd positioned them as far away from herself as she could, but still felt a twinge of fear in looking at them.

Twinge of fear? Hadn't it been the exact opposite in that warehouse with Otto?

Otto.

What was he going to think of all this?

Would he ever forgive her?

Why was she even wondering about Otto after what he'd said to her last night?

Olive was still coming up with answers to all four questions when she heard an all-too familiar cackle. There was a blurry riot of color at the edge of her vision, and suddenly there he was, running up to the bench and coming to a stop in front of her. "Well, well, well," Todd smirked. "If it isn't my old partner, skipping work to come pay her arch nemesis a visit. Now who could've ever seen that coming?"

"Cut the act, Todd," Olive retorted. Though she'd arranged the meeting, that didn't mean she was on his side. "We're here for business only."

"Are we, Scribbles?" He indicated the spread laid out on the ground between them. "Your gifts seem to suggest otherwise." Bending down, Todd inspected the items. "My, my, you don't disappoint. Let's see...blobs, good. Pickle juice, good. Pies, good. Appreciate the lemon meringue by the way, nice touch. Drum set, good. Foot spoon, good. And is this my Sandwichinator?" With this last remark, he picked up the gadget and hefted it. "Never thought I'd see it again. I believe you've even used it on a case or two, am I correct?"

Olive hid her surprise and gave him a pointed look instead. "What we do with our gadgets is none of your concern, Todd. Not anymore."

Todd rolled his eyes and stood up indignantly, kicking away a stray pigeon that had wandered too close to one of his pies. "How many times do I have to tell you? It's _Odd_ Todd now!"

"You might as well stop trying to make me say that," Olive scoffed, enjoying watching him squirm. "I was never partnered with anyone named Odd Todd. My partner was known as Todd, and that's how he'll stay."

The words tumbled out before she realized what she was saying. Too late, she clapped a hand over her mouth as Todd raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. So that's what this is about. You really are having a change of heart, aren't you."

Now it was Olive's turn to squirm. "No! I mean, that's not what I meant, I-I-I...Otto. He's—I mean, you're not—my partner," she finished weakly.

Todd took a step closer. For the first time that Olive could remember, there wasn't a hint of humor or vanity in his face. "Are you sure about that, Olive? Are you really sure? Because it sounds an awful lot like you still think of me as your partner. Am I close to the mark yet?"

Olive flinched, immediately cursing herself for doing so. "I-I told you," she stammered. "We're here for business."

All seriousness faded from him, and Todd was his normal self once more. He gave her a wink that suggested he didn't completely believe, but was willing to oblige her for now. "Right-o, then. Business it is!" Plopping down on the park bench beside her, he went on, "So what's the first item on the agenda?"

Olive opened her mouth, then stopped. For the millionth time, she wondered what exactly she was doing: skipping work, sitting next to her old par—her _arch nemesis_ in the middle of a park. Not to mention she seemed to have no control over her thoughts, words, or actions. It was very unnerving, all of it. "Well, to begin with, I'm not even sure why I contacted you in the first place," Olive sighed, voicing her thoughts. "I mean, you're right, we're archenemies and we're supposed to hate each other."

Todd waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, please. You forget we're meeting here under the white flag of truce. You did say in your email, 'All anger and hatred and past encounters aside'. Now please continue."

"Um..." _Get a grip, Olive! Pull yourself together!_ "You read everything I wrote about in my email, then?"

"Duh, of course I did. Rough day, huh?"

Somewhere in the back of Olive's mind, a little part of her was laughing at how surreal this moment was. She and Todd were actually sharing a casual conversation for the first time in years. "Yeah, rough day. Rough month, even. Maybe longer. I dunno. But I do know you kinda went through the same thing back when we were still partners. I was sort of hoping you might have advice for me on what to do." _Like he would_ , Olive thought scornfully. _Everyone knows exactly what he did once he got bored._

Todd stroked his chin, and Olive could almost see the gears turning in his mind. "Hmm. Remember what I told you the day I was so epically awesome and released the pienado?"

Olive ignored the attitude. How could she ever forget Todd's words? " _You're the one who should stop, Scribbles! Odd Squad g—get—got it all wrong! They should be making the world more odd, which is what_ I _am going to do..."_ It made her shudder to think about it. "Yes, I remember."

"And the day I quit the squad so I could go do more epically awesome things?"

Ms. O had accused him of taking her and Olive to the wrong house on purpose. " _That's right,"_ Todd had said in a sinister tone, " _because_ that _is interesting! Instead of making the world all boring-bore-bore, which is what the Odd Squad always does..."_

"Boring-bore-bore," Olive echoed quietly.

"Exactly!" Todd exclaimed. "See, that's what you're feeling now, isn't it? Everything's all boring-bore-bore, and suddenly oddness seems so much more fun!"

Olive shook her head vigorously. "No, no it doesn't!" she insisted, a little too quickly. "Nothing good ever comes out of being odd—"

"Nothing, like my Sandwichinator?"

"Huh?"

Todd held up the gadget. "I built this, remember? And I played that awesome practical joke on you with your sandwich!" He giggled at the memory, then cleared his throat when he saw that Olive wasn't laughing. "Come on, you and Otto later used this on a case, didn't you? Don't deny it."

Olive thought back to that day on the plane, when a woman's hands turned to sandwiches and she and Otto fixed it with...with the Sandwichinator. "Yes, we did," she admitted.

Todd smiled smugly. "I thought so. You solved a case with a gadget I made out of oddness. So the odd side can't be _all_ that bad, huh? I mean, I wouldn't say we have cookies, sure. But come on, look what good comes out of oddness?"

Olive looked away, suddenly interested in the nearby pigeon flock. "I don't know..."

"Yes, you do." Todd leaned over and took her chin in his hand, turning her head until they locked eyes. He looked dead serious again. "I knew from the start that it would only be a matter of time before you followed in my pentagonal footsteps."

Olive shot him a look, not certain what to make of the statement.

"Pssh, don't worry about it," Todd said hurriedly, realising he was getting off track. "Anyhow, I knew you were an accomplished agent, one of the best, and before long you'd get bored. Admit it, you almost joined that one day at Polly's stand."

"Hold on, back up. Did you say _accomplished?_ " Olive raised an eyebrow. "You're saying you knew that about me, after all those years of being selfish and calling me slow and putting me down like I was worth nothing? If I was such a smart agent, why didn't you let me work and show that?"

Todd's mouth tightened into a thin line. "That's my one regret. I do wish I had let you prove your worth, too, instead of overshadowing it. Then you might've joined me sooner."

"You're being selfish again."

"So are you. You _are_ here, after all," Todd countered. "But hey, what's wrong with taking care of your own personal needs once in a while? Only the odd side can let you do that, you know."

Olive wasn't sure she liked where the conversation was going. "Speaking of my own personal problems," she said, getting up from the bench to stare down her nose at her old partner, "I think it's pretty clear what your advice to me is. You want me to quit my job and join the Todd Squad with you."

Todd grinned. "Pretty much!"

"And just why should I do that?" Olive asked, placing her hands on her hips and fighting to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"I already told you," Todd said with a shrug. "Good does come out of oddness, and you can relieve your boredom and serve your own needs." He likewise stood up so that he towered over her once again. "Besides," he said, his voice dropping to almost a hysteric whisper, "the Todd Squad doesn't have to be a one-man band. I want an assistant, a companion, a partner-in-crime. Someone to _fight_ the boring, _defend_ the odd, and _reflect_ everything my squad stands for. Someone who, once my partner, always my partner. You. Olive, I need _you._ "

 _You…you…you…you…_ The words echoed through Olive's mind, stirring up echoes of other memories. Mentally defending his position at the O Games. Almost joining him at Polly Graph's lemonade stand when he said the word 'together'. Searching '#oddsquad' on social media and getting nothing but fun-filled results. Losing her ability to focus on distracting cases. Sending all those emails in his absence.

All the times everyone at Odd Squad had doubted her and she'd lost their trust.

Her fights with Otto.

Olive squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her forehead, as if somehow trying to knead her memories right out of her brain. The scent of lemons (probably from the blobs and the pies) reached her nose, and she forced herself to clear her head. When she finally reopened her eyes, Todd was still standing there expectantly, curious pigeons hopping and fluttering all over the spread behind him.

Olive sighed. She had plenty of reasons to quit Odd Squad, that was for sure. But there was still one last problem. One last effort to resist him. "Okay, so fun, I get it. Self-interest, got it. Old partners, yep. But earlier, you said I was wrong when I thought that nothing good ever came out of oddness. I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to figure out a way to prove it to me before I'll even consider your offer. Name—no, _show_ —me one good thing that can come out of being odd." Holding up her wrist, she looked at her watch. "You have ten...nine...eight..."

Todd paled. He was losing her. "Olive, wait—"

And that's when the pigeons attacked.

Triggered by some hidden lemony signal, the entire pigeon flock rose up off the ground and dive-bombed straight at Todd. Screaming in panic, he tried to bat them all away, but there were just too many. They were everywhere, pecking at his hair, clawing at his face, even pooping on his clothes. Olive instinctively jumped back and whipped out a gadget.

It was at that moment her awareness failed her. She didn't recall firing. She didn't recall the blinding beam of light. She certainly didn't recall the alarmed cries or the sensation of falling. But next thing she knew, Olive was lying on the sidewalk, heart pounding in her ears and drowning out everything else. Slowly she sat up, groaning and rubbing her head, but it didn't feel completely real to her. Less so when she saw what she'd done.

The pigeons were gone. Her gadget, the Puddinginator, was lying in the grass off to the side. And Todd, covered in a gross mixture of white guano and chocolate pudding, sat collapsed on the bench in front of her.

Olive scrambled to her feet. "What have I done?" she whispered.

A slow, incredulous smile spread across Todd's face. "I don't believe it. Your first odd deed. You actually did it. All those pigeons—Polly's pigeons, I guess, otherwise they wouldn't have recognized me—you turned them into pudding to save Odd Todd!" He broke into a huge maniacal laugh and circled the bench in sheer joy. _Finally,_ he thought ecstatically. _Finally I have the last piece of the puzzle!_ He felt the final component of his 500 piece puppy puzzle bouncing in his pocket, where it had been the entire time. _And even better, I've secured Olive!_ "Well, there's no turning back now," he panted with a smirk, "because now you _have_ to join me! Right?"

Olive sank to her knees. Shock. She was in shock. That couldn't have been her, Todd was wrong, she hadn't done that, there was no way, no way at all, she wasn't odd, no way…no way… no…

Something came over Olive just then. A sense of peace. And suddenly, everything was crystal clear. Why hadn't she realized it before?

"Alright," she managed. "Yes. I will join you."


	5. What I'd Become

**A/N Sorry for such a long wait, lovely readers! It's been hard putting this together, and with scholarship applications and a new fanfic (called "Ships Ahoy!", please read/review!) on my plate, I seemed to never find the time to work on this. But here we are, finally! More A/N at the bottom, but for now, enjoy Chapter 4.**

4 - People Couldn't Believe What I'd Become

TO-DO LIST

1) Get two hard-boiled eggs in the oddest way possible - you get to decide!

2) Crack one egg on top and the other on bottom

3) Take them to Lilliput at OSHQ

4) Catch a fish and turn it into a phone - you'll need this to communicate with me

5) Get a honeydew melon in the oddest way possible - again, you decide!

6) Switch out with you-know-what

WELCOME TO THE TODD SQUAD! YOUR MISSION BEGINS NOW! ~T

* * *

"Ms. O, can I talk to you for a bit?"

Ms. O glanced up from the octagon she was sketching. "Sure thing, Otto. What's up?"

Otto sat down in the chair in front of the desk. His face looked troubled. "It's Olive. Something's up with her. I think she's...she's..." He sighed. "I think she's turned odd."

 _Plunk!_ went the purple colored pencil onto the floor. Both of Ms. O's eyebrows were raised in alarm. "Are you sure?" she demanded.

"I don't know!" Otto groaned. "All I know is she's been acting strange for several weeks now, and all she could think of was Todd. Then the other day, we—we had a fight. A bad fight. And she said something about wishing she'd never been an agent. See, it started with..." Otto proceeded to relate the events of two nights ago. "Ever since then, I've only seen her twice. Both times, she said she was too busy to chat and had somewhere else to be. But when I asked her for details, she was, well, evasive. And there was this weird look in her eyes, kind of distant. And I think the second time, she wasn't even wearing her badge. I don't know, it just reminds me too much of Odd Todd."

Ms. O was silent for a bit. The lights flickered once or twice before she finally said, "Can you describe what happened both times?"

"Yeah, sure," Otto nodded. "The first time was yesterday afternoon..."

* * *

I saw her when I was returning a gadget to Oscar. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted her looking at one of the little cities, so I went over to talk to her. "Hey, Olive," I said, a little nervous. "Where've you been?"

She whirled around and spread out her arms to cover the city behind her, which I thought was really weird. "Huh what? I'm not doing anything odd here!"

I stared at her. "Okaaaay. So, um, where were you this morning?"

"Oh, you know, I uh..." She started fidgeting. "Well, I...had several cases from Ms. O, yes! I had to do them solo, because they were so important and could only be done by an experienced agent, and you're, y'know, still new—"

"I'm not _that_ new," I corrected her. "I've been on the squad for almost a year now, _and_ I've helped you on some of our most dangerous cases..." I stopped when I saw her angry face. "Sorry. I...don't want to fight again. Actually, I wanted to apologize—"

"Forget it," Olive cut me off, turning back to the tiny city. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"Oh. Okay." I shrugged. "So, whatcha up to now? Another solo case?"

"Um...yeah..." She pulled out a small jar of something and unscrewed it, but I couldn't see what was in the jar. "Odd problem here in the city of Lilliput, had to fix it myself."

"Really? What problem?" I leaned in to get a closer look, and suddenly Olive elbowed me in the stomach, hard. "Ow! What was that for?"

"You're not allowed to look!" she snapped, and this time I saw what looked like terror in her eyes. "Top secret, okay?" Quickly she dumped the contents of the jar into Lilliput's town square and hurried off without another word.

After she left, I went over and looked to see what had been in the jar. But all I saw were two hard-boiled eggs, each one cracked. Yet the tiny people, instead of being scared of the two giant eggs, were arguing angrily with each other. I didn't get it.

* * *

The lights were flickering again, more frequently now. "Hang on, Otto," Ms. O stopped him before Otto could go on to the second part of his story. "The lights. Are they flickering out there, too?"

Otto got up and poked his head out the doorway. "Wow! Yeah, they are. Like crazy."

"Something must be wrong with the power," Ms. O mused. She pressed the button on her PA microphone. "Attention: I need all available maintenance agents to report to the Odd Squad power grid immediately and run a check for errors."

As she finished speaking and Otto sat back down, the door to the office opened and Agent Oscar walked in holding the two eggs from Olive. "Sorry to bother you, Ms. O, but Agent Owen found these in the middle of the city of Lilliput. One of them's cracked at the top and the other's cracked at the bottom, so now all the Big-Endians and Little-Endians are fighting each other again, and we can't get them to stop!"

Ms. O sighed and grabbed a juice box. "First Olive is acting odd, then flickering lights, now this. Can this day get any worse?"

It could. While Oscar had been talking, Otto had realized something. "Ms. O?" he asked. "HQ is powered by a cantaloupe, right?"

"Right, so?"

"So, the second time I saw Olive..."

* * *

The second time I saw Olive was this morning. I was getting a snack in the break room when I noticed her walking past holding a large sack filled with... _something_. Curious, I followed her as far as the trophy room and stopped her before she got to the tubes. "Olive, wait up! What are you—"

She whirled around in shock, and that's when I saw it. Or rather, _didn't_ see it. Her badge was missing, along with the little hexagons on her collar. "Partner? Where's your badge?" I demanded.

"My—oh!" Olive looked down and seemed to notice its absence for the first time. "It's, uh...it's getting repaired, yes! No big deal."

That didn't sound right. When I'd had my badge repaired, I wasn't allowed to leave the warehouse until it was fixed, since we can't solve cases without one. "But don't you have to—"

"Never mind about that," she cut me off. "I'm late for a—a very important date." She turned to go, but not before I'd grabbed the sack out of her hand.

"You've been keeping too many secrets lately," I said, "and according to the rulebook, which I checked last night, as your partner I _do_ have a right to know them. Now what's in the sack?"

Olive huffed. "Okay, fine. It's a melon, that's all. See for yourself."

Sure enough, when I reached into the sack, I pulled out a cantaloupe. "Why does it have holes on the sides, though?" I asked after examining it. "Wait a second...doesn't it—"

"No!"

I stared at her. "I didn't even say anything yet."

She started to fidget. "I was, um, answering the question you may or may not have been about to ask. Now, can I _please_ get back to my case?"

Still a little surprised, I dumbly held out the cantaloupe to her and let her take it, then just like yesterday, she ran off. In the back of my mind, I knew there was only one place she could've gotten a certain medium-sized cantaloupe with holes drilled on the sides. But as I watched her go, I saw something almost more disturbing than her missing badge.

A white streak of hair was hidden in her ponytail.

* * *

Ms. O nodded grimly. "Sounds like the cantaloupe that powers HQ. And I think this confirms Olive is definitely turning odd. This is not good, Otto. Not good at all."

Otto felt a sinking feeling in his chest. _Has my partner really gone to the odd side for good?_ He tried to push the thought away with another important one: "So we can't just get another cantaloupe to replace the one we had?" he asked. The lights kept flickering, and now there were ominous buzzing sounds of power weakening, as well. Otto could hear alarmed noises coming from agents milling around outside the office.

"Nope," Oscar said, adjusting his glasses worriedly. "Has to be a very special kind of cantaloupe. The question is, how did Olive manage to replace it without setting off any alarms?"

A sudden shower of sparks burst out of Ms. O's lamp, and Otto ducked out of the way just in time. "With an ordinary cantaloupe, I'll bet!" he managed. The buzzing noises were growing deafeningly loud, and it was clear the power was about to fail. "Ms. O, what do we do?!"

"There's only one thing you _can_ do!" Ms. O shouted back. "You have to call Olive!"

"What good would that do?"

"Agent Otto, listen to me! She can't have turned fully odd yet, it's too soon! And she loves to-do lists, right? So all of the oddness she caused were probably tasks assigned by Odd Todd, not her own. Which means there's still a chance we can get her to change her mind, come back from the odd side, and fix everything she turned odd! But we can't _do_ that unless you call her!"

Otto shook his head frantically. "No, it won't work! She won't listen to me—"

" _OTTO!_ " Oscar interrupted, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Don't you get it, man? You're her partner! You're the only one she _can_ listen to! _You're the only chance we've got!_ "

Otto stared at Oscar in shock for a moment. Ms. O looked at him expectantly. Finally he gulped and nodded. "Okay. Here goes nothing." Opening his badge phone, he dialed the number 63.

* * *

With a flick of his wrist, Odd Todd drew the last little chalk figure on the blackboard. "Ta-da!"

Olive, seated opposite him on an outdated sofa, cocked her head and squinted at the crazy jumble of chalk drawings for several seconds. "...What exactly is all that supposed to be, again?"

Todd rolled his eyes, his triumphant air deflated. "It's our next odd scheme, Scribbles, remember? You completed your initiation missions, now we're moving on to the bigger stuff. See?" He sighed. "Never mind, we'll go over it later. You're still new, after all." Flipping the blackboard over to the clean side, Todd began outlining a chart. "Which reminds me, we need to make your résumé."

"Starting with Scribbles," Olive said quickly. "You're not allowed to call me that anymore, not if we're gonna be working as equals."

After a brief pause, Todd nodded and began filling out one of the chart's columns. "Fair enough. So you'll be going by Tolive, then."

"Huh?"

"Tolive. You know, put a T at the beginning to prove you're a Todd Squad member?"

Olive hesitated. She was about to make a snide comment about the pointlessness of making things official if Todd Squad HQ was still in his mom's basement for odd's sake, but stopped herself. _That's something the old Olive would've said,_ she realized. And there was a slight ring to the name Tolive that was now growing on her. Still, one thing at a time. "Can we come back to that?"

Todd narrowed his eyes at her, and Olive was scared he might doubt her fledgling loyalty. But then he shrugged. "Alright, sure. Moving on to your appearance. You've already got the gorgeous white streak in your ponytail, lovely, now we just need a uniform. Something colorful with..."

Olive began tuning him out after a while, but not from boredom. She knew Todd didn't need her help in drawing up her resume, since everything he wanted for it was stuff he either knew already or would come up with himself.

 _Todd. I suppose I should actually start calling him Odd Todd, now,_ Olive thought. It had been different when she would deliberately refuse to call him by his new name in order to show lack of respect. But now...the whole thing felt so surreal. She was really here, working beside her once-archenemy as his partner again, and without a single trace of boredom. What was better, Todd was holding up to his end of the bargain: these past few days, she'd gotten nothing but cheerfulness, respect, politeness, and above all treatment as an equal from him. He even gave her the use of his personal chauffeur—who, funnily enough, happened to be the same girl who'd 'accidentally' number-hogged the nines a few days ago. This made her enjoy the Todd Squad even more, aside from the fun of causing oddness. It was still kind of weird to be on the side she had fought against for so long, and a little disconcerting, too. But overall, she was starting to think she didn't really want to go back—

VVVVVVVVTTT! VVVVVVVVTTT! VVVVVVVVTTT!

In her pocket, Olive felt her badge phone vibrate. She drew in a sharp breath. It was from Odd Squad Headquarters, it had to be. Nearly six hours had passed since she'd switched out the cantaloupe with the honeydew melon, and the power was probably failing by now. Of course someone was going to call her. _I knew I shouldn't have hung onto my badge,_ she berated herself. _I should've gotten rid of it when I could. I already made a new phone, anyhow._ Quickly she composed herself, glancing at Todd to make sure he hadn't seen anything. He hadn't, of course. Too busy talking about the outfit, catchphrase, go-to odd cases, and other stuff she would need to have as his accomplice, Todd was paying more attention to the little details concerning Olive's initiation.

She fingered her vibrating badge phone nervously. While every instinct told her to ignore it, a little voice in the back of her mind said this phone call needed to be answered. If only to sever her ties once and for all. Yes, that was it, of course.

Olive cleared her throat. "Um, Todd? Can I, um, step out for a minute? I need my tuba break."

Todd stopped talking and gazed at her with new admiration. "Since when did you…? Wow. Yes, of course, please do! Anything for the sake of oddness."

"Thanks." Doing her best to remain casual, Olive stood and jogged up the stairs, out the screen door, and into the backyard. Dusk was falling and the air was growing colder, but she barely noticed. Her hands trembled slightly (much to her annoyance) as she flipped open her badge phone and held it up to her ear to say those words one last time:

"Um...g-go for Olive?"

 **A/N** **And now, dear readers, I shall offer you a choice: this story has two possible endings regarding whether good or evil will triumph over Olive. Josh and I have already decided which ending we want, _but_ I'm curious as to whether you readers want to see the other option written and posted as an additional alternate ending. Please let me know your opinions on the matter in the reviews, particularly after the next and final chapter. Thanks!**


	6. Who'd Wanna Be King

**A/N Well, whaddya know... _exactly eight months later_ I have FINALLY finished this fanfic! (Warning: I literally wrote this chapter, got it approved, and immediately set off to publish it _without_ doing any editing whatsoever. So I hope it reads okay and makes at least some sense!) I wanna give a huge, huge,  HUGE apology to all the readers who had to wait for such a long time while I got "Ships Ahoy" done before Season 2 _and then_ went on to finish "Patterns of the Past" first (but tbh that was because I had an inspiration for POTP and needed to get it written down before I forgot). But now this is finally here, so yay!**

 **As for how it ends...I really enjoyed seeing all the feedback as to which ending to do and why (Flying Saucers, your argument was my favorite XD), and I'll tell you this: Joshua and I decided waaaaaay back to do the ending where Olive turns completely odd. But since most of you wanted to see both, I went ahead and wrote the alternate ending as well, and it's included in this chapter below the first ending. Hope you guys enjoy both and that they live up to each expectations :)**

 **Finally, shoutouts: Thank you to Flying Saucers, Virrose, Ambidextrous Drummer, Perilheart, Wild Way Force, shaknpp, Guest, Jonathan, Lily, Everlynn Flame, MiracleShine, and Ravenpuff for reviewing; additional thanks to Agent43 (duh), Ambidextrous Drummer, Cypress Oury, Dr. Pickle 22, Eternal Sidekick, MiracleShine, Perilheart, RCMountie, and greeneyes348 for favoriting and/or following this fanfic.**

 **And last but not least, a ginor _mouse_ (get it? ;D) special thank-you to the one and only Joshua Kilimnik, aka Agent43 aka Odd Todd, for being the true mastermind behind this entire story and making it all possible. You, sir, truly are a man of many flowers and few raccoons!**

5 - Oh, Who Would Ever Wanna Be King?

TO-DO LIST

1) Get Olive back. Do whatever it takes, but _get her back._

* * *

"OLIVE!" shouted Otto's voice on the other end of the line. "I thought you'd never pick up! Okay listen, I _really_ need to talk to you..."

For a moment Olive was thrown for a loop. Here she'd expected Ms. O to be the one calling her to shout that she was fired, or something like that. And while she would've been more than a little upset for sure, Olive had hoped such a phone call might've given her the last excuse she'd need to complete her switch to the Todd Squad. So she certainly hadn't expected _Otto_ to be the one calling her, let alone without any traces of anger.

 _It's alright, Olive,_ a little voice inside her said. _This'll just make it a little more difficult. Not impossible._

Feeling a fresh surge of confidence, she promptly interrupted Otto with a smirk. "Yeah, yeah, the cantaloupe's gone and the power's going berserk. Tell me something I _don't_ know."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. "Look, Olive," he finally said. "We all know it was you. I just wanted to say, you don't have to do this. I know you're mad at me, and I know I make mistakes that make you mad, but I still want you back as my partner—"

"Do you really?" she cut him off coolly. "Funny, right now it sounds an awful lot like you're trying to manipulate me and tell me what to do again, like always." _Why didn't I see it before? Of course that's all he's trying to do. How dare he tell me I don't have to make my own decisions!_

Sure enough, now he was trying to backpedal. "Wait, _what?_ What are you talking about? I didn't do that at all!"

"Oh, sure you didn't. Just like right now you're not frantically trying to convince me to come back, just so you guys can get your precious cantaloupe where it belongs and fix the power and everything ends happily ever after, yay! Well, hate to disappoint, but this is one happy ever after that Odd Squad will be denied."

Another pause. When Otto spoke again, his voice was harder. "I don't think I know who you are. What have you done with my partner?"

That was all she needed. _At last. He's given up. And neither he nor anyone else on Odd Squad holds any power over me anymore._ Satisfied with herself, Olive let out a shrill cackle. _Ooh, my first cackle on the odd side! I love it!_ "Nothing at all! I just brought her back to where she belongs—with her _original_ partner. Now, if that's all you wanted to say, I believe you all have a power problem you need to fix. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope it doesn't leave you too _melon_ -choly!" And with another cackle, she clapped her badge phone shut.

* * *

With one final loud buzz, the power shut off for good.

But the sudden darkness and ensuing pandemonium were lost on Otto, as if he were isolated in his own little bubble. Slowly he brought his badge phone away from his ear and let it clap shut. He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut, but that didn't stop the tears from welling.

 _She's gone. I lost her. And it's all my fault._

For as long as he lived, Otto never forgave himself for what had happened this week.

* * *

Before she went back inside, Olive found the garbage can and tossed in her badge.

"Oh good, there you are!" Odd Todd greeted her as she made her way back down the stairs. "How was the tuba break?"

Olive smirked. "Let's just say it was exactly what I needed."

"Excellent! Okay, so while you were out, I worked on designing your new outfit, and you can look it over once I'm done. But I assure you, so far it looks plenty odd!"

"Can't wait to see it!" Olive agreed. "And I've been thinking about my new name, too, and I realized something: if you rearrange the letters in my name, they spell out Evil O. So how about that instead of Tolive?"

Odd Todd raised his eyebrows and nodded thoughtfully. "Odd Todd and Evil O. Yeah, I can see that now. Alright, we'll keep that!" Then he checked his watch and winked at her. "Nearly suppertime. Whaddya say we go eat some...oh, I don't know...cantaloupe?"

The evil grin came easily now. _I could get used to this._ "Sounds _odd_ to me!"

* * *

***ALTERNATE ENDING***

* * *

"And what was it about the phone call that finally changed your mind?"

Olive felt herself wither under Ms. O's cold, piercing, almost scornful gaze. She wanted to shrink, shrink, shrink into her wooden chair until the world opened up to swallow her whole. "Um..." she struggled to form a coherent sentence in her head, and finally broke eye contact to look at Otto, who was watching her with concern. "Uh, the call itself, I guess. I dunno. It's just..." She thought back to earlier that evening, standing outside in the chill, listening to Otto's voice...and it had been as if she were snapping out of the worst trance possible. _What in jackalope's name have I done? Am I_ _doing_ _?_ she'd thought, utterly horrified and disgusted with herself. _I have to make this right while I still can._ Olive shot a half smile at her partner, "...I guess I forgot how much you guys really cared. How much _I_ care about _you_ all. And about my job."

Her voice cracked on the word _job_. She glanced down at her badge, pinned back on her jacket where it belonged. What was going to happen to her job now?

Oscar, standing behind Ms. O as usual, shook his head in disbelief. "Olive, why didn't you ever come talk to us? You _know_ we have therapy programs for things like this, we would've helped you get through your odd phase without—" he made some sweeping gesture "—without all _this_ happening!"

She shrugged and sighed. "I guess I just...always assumed it would never happen to me. Gosh, I was stupid. Wasn't I?"

"Yeah, you kind of were," Ms. O said bluntly. "You're lucky you were able to get that cantaloupe back from Odd Todd and back in its rightful place, or I wouldn't be going easy on you now."

Olive shuddered. She _did_ consider herself lucky. The look on Todd's face when she'd barged back into the room and announced she was quitting the Todd Squad was one that would haunt her for a long time. Not just the anger, but the sadness and sheer disappointment hidden underneath. It was a miracle Olive had escaped from the house and into the tubes without him catching her or zapping her with yet another gadget, but an even greater miracle that she'd held her ground against that face…the face that made her want to change her mind again...

 _Stop thinking about it, Olive! See, this is what you're going into therapy for._ "So, um," she asked hesitantly, afraid to hear the answer, "what does 'going easy on me' mean?"

Ms. O's cold stare never wavered. "It means that, against all Odd Squad rules, I'm not going to fire you."

Beside her, Olive heard Otto breathe a sigh of relief. She couldn't believe her ears. _After all I said to him, after all I did...even after all that, he still wants me back as his partner? Oh, Otto..._ The thought of his impossible forgiveness made her so happy, she almost wanted to cry. But only almost.

"Unlike Agent Todd, you did not make such a stupid decision to turn odd completely by yourself. Even though you willingly agreed, Todd still coerced you into it in the first place, and in the end you managed to fight back and return the Odd Squad Cantaloupe to its rightful place. Because of all that, I'll allow you to keep your badge. _However,_ " Ms. O went on, her voice growing sterner, "I _do_ have to put you on probation."

Olive closed her eyes. Probation. She could handle that. She certainly deserved much worse.

"For the next month, you will not be allowed to solve cases, whether inside or outside headquarters, solo or with Otto, under any circumstances. You will attend two hours of odd therapy with Oscar every day, and while at work you will be accompanied by either Otto or one of my assistants _at all times._ And if I decide you haven't improved enough after one month, I will extend your probation until you do. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Ms. O," she murmured, nodding her head once. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

The boss's face softened a little. "It's good to have you back, Agent Olive."

"Really good, heh," Oscar murmured, shooting her a wink.

Olive smiled at him. "So what do you want me to do first?"

"You can start by getting rid of that hideous white streak in your hair," Otto quipped, which earned him a playful slap on the arm. Both partners chuckled a little.

"He is right, though," Ms. O agreed. "I will need you to immediately do that, and remove any other traces you might have left of Odd Todd on you or in your desk. Otto can help you, and Oscar and Owen will make a thorough inspection later."

 _That makes sense, obviously,_ Olive thought. _High time I did that once and for all. And I know just where to start…_

Moments later, Olive sat in front of her computer with her email pulled up onscreen, Otto standing just behind her. Every single email conversation she'd ever had with Todd was highlighted, and the cursor hovered over the 'Delete' button. Turning the mouse upside-down as she'd once seen Oscar do, Olive set her hand on it, then turned to Otto and raised her eyebrows. "Would my real partner like to help me do the honors?"

Otto grinned back and placed his hand on hers. "Always. Together on three."

 _Real partners make up and forgive each other after arguments._

"One..."

 _Real partners care for and help each other._

"...Two..."

 _Real partners solve problems differently, but they do it together because that's what partners are for._

"...Three!"

 _Real partners are not just partners, but friends._

And with a resounding _click,_ all her temptation to join the odd side was gone for good.

 _God, I'm so glad I came back._

 **A/N ONE LAST THING: Just a reminder that the official deadline to send in your entry or entries for the new Contest is _tomorrow_ , Saturday July 30. But since this reminder is so late, and because we're so close to the end of the month (AND THE ODD SQUAD MOVIE! ! ! #gethype) anyway, I will also accept any entries submitted on Sunday July 31. So please send them in asap, and I hope you all get the chance to participate! :D**


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